Toner Quinn is Editor of the Journal of Music. His new book, What Ireland Can Teach the World About Music, is available here. Toner will be giving a lecture exploring some of the ideas in the book on Saturday 11 May 2024 at 3pm at Farmleigh House in Dublin. For booking, visit https://bit.ly/3x2yCL8.
Toner Quinn
Arts funding continues to look vulnerable in this economic recession, but it always has been, and we have to seriously look at why this is.Arts communities have continually put forward economic, cultural and social arguments for funding for the arts, and yet...
Parents sing, sing, sing to their children in the pre-school years... and then it stops. Why?
There are many issues involved in writing about music, some of which are addressed in this issue in articles by John McLachlan and Bob Gilmore, but traditional-music criticism has problems all of its own.Unlike other genres, the body of high-quality criticism...
Welcome to the first issue of The Journal of Music.Our philosophy is simple: we look for the bigger picture in musical life, and we ask those at its coal face – musicians, composers and listeners – to write about it.We connect across genres and...
In 1996, for a speech given at the Crossroads Conference in Dublin, Tony MacMahon wrote the following: ‘Underlying the affection of a large section of the public for [traditional music and song] is a preconception – that apart from its entertainment...
Before JMI began in 2000, I wrote down a list of people I intended to ask to write for the magazine. They were people I regarded as cornerstones in Irish musical life. With them on board, I felt, the magazine would have a solid foundation upon which to grow....
For over a decade, John Kelly has been broadcasting his own distinct mix of music on national radio, first with the BBC, then Eclectic Ballroom on Radio Ireland (now Today FM) and Mystery Train on RTÉ Radio 1, establishing a reputation as a broadcaster who is always at the musical cutting edge, and building a particularly loyal listenership. His current show, JK Ensemble on RTÉ Lyric FM, is a rarity in Irish broadcasting, mixing classical, traditional, jazz and the avant-garde on weekday daytime national radio, and it has just reached its second year. In this interview, Toner Quinn, Editor of JMI, talks to John Kelly about his views on broadcasting, the current Irish music scene, the artists he admires and...
In a new series of columns, Toner Quinn looks at contemporary issues in traditional music.
The reputation of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, the organisation founded in 1951 to promote Irish traditional music, reaches far and wide. Seldom is the rise of this music over the past fifty years mentioned without paying tribute to its...
Which social groups are more likely to attend different music events? Why are some people many times more likely to be involved in music than others? Are some people excluded from musical life? In February, the Economic and Social Research Institute issued...
In 2008, fiddle player Martin Hayes received the TG4 Gradam Ceoil award. Toner Quinn explores the work of an artist who has walked new ground in traditional music.
One of the Forum for Music in Ireland’s most important roles has been its highlighting of the slow development of music education in Ireland. It does this through its bi-annual meetings, its website and its campaigns. The difficulty, however, has always...
The third annual festival of the Institute of Ideas in London – The Battle of Ideas – took place in October. There was a music element this year, which I attended, comprising four separate discussions on music education, the ubiquity of music,...
The interview with fiddle player Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh in this issue raises the issue of experimentation in traditional music, and it is coincidental that the Contemporary Music Centre has just commissioned a study ‘on the feasibility...
From Rathfarnam in County Dublin, Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh is a fiddle player, whistle player and uilleann piper. On fiddle he has recorded one solo album, Turas go Tír na nÓg (1999), and made a widely acclaimed duet recording with uilleann piper Mick O’Brien, Kitty Lie Over (2003). Now aged 27, Ó Raghallaigh has this year produced a solo recording which stretches beyond the boundaries of traditional music. This interview took place in An Spidéal, County Galway, on 23 July 2007.
What is new in the Arts Council’s relationship with the traditional arts?
The matter of providing state-funded music education services is still unresolved.
Talk about ‘music education’ in Ireland is actually about classical music education.
